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Tevez: I did not fear the shoot-out

Carlos Tevez played down the significance of his penalty, while Lionel Messi was frustrated at failing to score.

Published

27 June 2015

Argentina striker Carlos Tevez declared he had moved on from his missed penalty at the 2011 Copa America after converting the winning spot-kick against Colombia.

In a dramatic finale to Argentina's quarter-final in Vina del Mar, five penalty-takers failed to score before Tevez kept his cool to secure victory.

At the same stage four years ago, Tevez was the only Argentine to miss a penalty as Uruguay triumphed 5-4 in a shoot-out to eliminate the Copa America hosts.

That miss prompted Argentina coach Gerardo Martino to push the 31-year-old forward down his shoot-out order in the hope the new Boca Juniors signing would not be required, but Tevez insisted history was not on his mind when he faced off against Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina.

"This is for my team-mates. It's not just me," Tevez told the host broadcaster after the game.

"Football always provides the opportunity for revenge, but what happened four years ago is over."

Meanwhile, captain Lionel Messi claimed Argentina produced their "best match" of the continental championships so far but was frustrated he could not add to his goals tally at the Estadio Sausalito.

Messi has just one goal from four matches at the tournament.

"It's terrible what it costs me to score a goal for the national team," the Barcelona forward said.

"Today I had two very clear chances and I could not score.

"But the important thing is that the team produced a great match and, although it was on penalties, we deserved to progress."

Messi's best chance came in the first half when Ospina produced a brilliant save to deny the striker's follow-up header after the Colombian gloveman had stopped Sergio Aguero's initial strike.